he can make a strong authoritative defense of the president's record and also take on frankly some of the things that governor romney said last week that just aren't true like his tax policies don't benefit the rich. so i think he's in a good position to make the argument and forcefully. >> now, phil, there are those moments where you've come off a debate or a speech or television broadcast and you think, oh, why didn't i say that, would have, could have, should have. back to new hampshire when you were coaching tim pawlenty and the first new hampshire debate where he previewed he was going to be tough against mitt romney and talk about obamaeny care -- >> what are you doing to me here? >> could you relate a little bit to the fact that we all expected the president to be tough and aggressive and he wasn't? and did that happen back then in your camp? >> let me just say that i think that the debates are really fundamentally important. they were very important in our primary in terms of the demoments in the key trajectories who we chose as a nominee that led to mitt romney's election. i